Time Stands Still
by Baby-Maraj
Summary: The Ponds haven't seen the Doctor for some time. River is taking it the hardest. She knows that it's good for her to take a break from the world of the Doctor but she worries that the break shall be permanent. Will she see the Doctor again? And what will happen if she does?
1. The Family That Stays Together

River sat on her bed, book in hand, lost in thought. She had been released from SCF (Stormcage Containment Facility) just a little over a month ago. And since then, she didn't have anything to do. She would be travelling time and space, causing hell, if she had her vortex manipulator. But SCF protocol stated that any belonging of prisoners would not be returned for at least two months.

All the woman could do, at this point, was wait. Wait until her manipulator was returned or till The Doctor magically showed up to solve whatever disaster was going to happen at this time. Wasn't that what always happened when he showed up?

River attempted to read her book but her mind kept wandering to her time in prison as well as to wondering when The Doctor would return. It got to the point that she decided that it would be best if she just went to bed. She wasn't sure but she hoped that it would be some kind of distraction. Even, if only for a few hours.

The next morning, the time traveler was awakened by screaming and laughing. She knew it coming from the bedroom at the other end of the hall. She looked over at the alarm clock on the bedside table to her left to see that it was seven in the morning. Usually, Ms. Song was a morning person, up and ready for the next adventure. But considering she had been up till four day dreaming, she was tired and extremely irritable.

She quickly got out of bed, grabbing her bathrobe on the way out of the room. She made her way, slightly clumsily to the room where the annoyance was coming. "Dad, could you stop tickling mum awake in the morning? I think it's getting a bit old," she said as she swung the door open. "Or at least get the room sound proofed."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Amy noted as watched River storm her way downstairs. In return to her statement she got a groan. River really wasn't doing too well that morning.

Amy quickly jumped out of bed and followed after her daughter. Rory, knowing that they needed some time alone, decided to get some more sleep.

River, feeling like a heavy breakfast, was looking for the waffle iron. It had its specific place in the kitchen but Rory insisted on putting it wherever he immediately found open space. This was much to his wife's and daughter's chagrin.

River knew it when her mother entered the room but didn't say anything as her mother would be the one to start up the conversation. "You stayed up thinking about him, about travelling, again didn't you?"

The woman let out a heavy sigh in response. "I am so not meant to be staying in one place at one time. I'm the daughter of the TARDIS for crying out loud. I need to be travelling through time and space, not standing still, moving slowly."

"I know." Amy understood what the younger woman was feeling very well. They had known one another since after River's first regeneration. Amy had always been her confidant and when you put her and the Doctor together they knew her better than she knew herself. "He's going to come back sooner or later and just like you I am hoping that it is sooner."

"Thank you Amy." The two of them laughed, and then went on making breakfast together. When it was ready, Amy went through the tedious task of attempting to wake Rory up.

It was the same thing, Saturday. Rory worked himself to the bone when at the hospital. Friday night, he would have a high from working the rest of the week and on Saturday, he would wake up with Amy but the minute his head hit a pillow he was out. And since this happened every week, Amy and River had the displeasure of waking him up. Normally they would just leave him but Amy quickly discovered that if her husband went without breakfast the he could become very disagreeable and cranky.

One would think that once you had found a way to wake Rory one time, it could be used again. But that was not the case. Waking Rory took everything in your arsenal that you could think of. Amelia's husband was the sort of person that once you did something, you could not use that method to wake him up again… at least, for a while.

The woman was thinking of just leaving the man to sleep and just dealing with his wrath later since nothing she could think of was working. She was just about to walk away when the man quickly sat up, wide awake. "Ow," he and his wife shouted. Amy had been leaning over him trying to awake when she had given up. As she had stopped, she didn't know what it was that had woken him up.

"How? What? What made you able to get up? I didn't do anything and you just sat up quick."

"The TARDIS. It's The Doctor." Amy stopped herself from saying what she was going to say next and listened. She could hear it too. The TARDIS making its wheezing sound was something that you just couldn't miss.

Rory's wife quickly runs out their room and heads straight for the kitchen where she had left River to set the table. When she reached her destination she spun 'round looking for her daughter. When she stopped, she realized it was a sort of dumb thing to do considering that the kitchen wasn't very big.

Amy felt a breeze and quickly made her way to the front door. She saw River making her way down the street at top speed to the TARDIS, which was materializing at the end of the street. The woman made quick to follow after her daughter, forgetting about breakfast or making sure that her husband was actually awake and getting himself ready for the day.


	2. River Takes Control

River slammed open the doors of the TARDIS as she ran in. The Doctor, who had been mindlessly throwing and toggling switches on the console, practically jumped out of his skin at the noise. Once his hearts returned to their normal speed he looked over at River.

"How did you get on here? You're supposed to be at Amy and Rory's house." The Doctor was sure he had landed on Korofor 4 at the time when River had been released from Stormcage. She wasn't scheduled to have her vortex manipulator returned to her for another month. He had made sure of that.

River only stood there catching her breath. River had run out the house when the first wheeze had reached her ears and she wanted to get to her destination before the Doctor decided that he had elsewhere to be.

She replied to the Doctor once she had caught her breath. "You are correct. I am supposed to be at my parents' house, which is just down the block." There was a soft hum after she had explained how she came to be on the TARDIS. "It seems that this was not the place you wanted to be but the TARDIS says that this is the time and location you are needed to be. I suppose this means you were trying to avoid me?" The TARDIS hummed in confirmation.

The Doctor huffed at the fact that the TARDIS had outed him. It wasn't that he wanted to avoid River but that he felt she needed time away from him. He was going to come back and get her. It was only a question of when.

Hurt passed through the woman's eyes. It was impossible for the Doctor to miss it. But it disappeared as quickly as it had shown. That wasn't surprising. River had been trained her entire life to hide her emotions. Even though she had been working on being more vulnerable with him, it still took time to undo something that had been implanted years before.

"I was going to come back once your manipulator was returned to you," he said, trying to remedy the situation.

River wasn't convinced but an idea immediately popped into her mind. She was definitely going to get payback on the Doctor. She slowly made her way towards him, making the old man very nervous. "You really think that I'm going to buy that Doctor?"

"I'm hoping you will because it's the truth." The Doctor slowly backed away as River came closer. The Doctor didn't know what River was planning but he decided to assume that it was something that he wasn't going to enjoy. He did wonder at one point if the TARDIS would ever do that to him. His conclusion? If she was angry with him, then she would willingly allow him to be punished.

"I've been waiting over a month for you. What are you going to do to apologize to me? Just know that if you don't do it properly then you'll be punished. But if you do it right then you'll be rewarded."

The Doctor nearly fell over the railing when he backed into it. He needed to think quickly, River was getting closer and he was running out of time. "So what's it gonna be Mr. Time Lord?" She stops, inches away from him and waits.

The Doctor, panicked, covers the distance between them and kissed her. River was surprised by his actions but quickly took advantage of the situation before the Doctor could pull away and kissed him back. The longer the two kissed, the more comfortable the Doctor became. Memories on how this stuff worked came back to him. However, he didn't know how well he would perform as it had been hundreds of years since his last experience with a woman.

That, however, didn't seem to be a problem for River as she took control. She slowly lowered her right hand down from his chest to the bulge in his pants that was only growing bigger the closer she got to it. The Doctor gasped when his wife's hand reached its destination. River took the opportunity to slide her tongue into his mouth. This had surprised the Doctor but he quickly shoved the surprise to the back of his mind and only focused on the moment.

There were so many dormant emotions that River was unlocking the longer they stayed together and the Doctor was enjoying them too much to pull away even though he knew he probably should.

They did, eventually; pull away to catch their breaths and when they did, the woman quickly led her husband to the closest room in the TARDIS. Luckily it was his, so he didn't have to feel bad about what was going to happen if it had been Amy and Rory's bed.

River threw her husband on the bed when they were close enough, then quickly made her way and straddled his waist. She could see – and feel – his anticipation. She was going to make him wait a little but then, why should she punish herself as well.

River could say that even though she didn't take it as slow as shew had originally planned, she did enjoy herself very much. Also, to her surprise, she found out that once you got the Doctor going, he could go for a VERY long time. She was almost unable to keep up. He had way surpassed her expectations of him. She would definitely be experiencing this with him again.

The two lay together in the bed, just soaking up the moment that they just had. Neither was ready to move. In fact, both were quite tired out from all the physical activity. For once in all the time that she had known him, River was actually seeing the Doctor fall asleep, which was good as she was also falling asleep right next to him. The Doctor wrapped his arm around his wife, kissing her temple before the fall asleep under the warmth of his comforter.

The Doctor woke up hours later but didn't yet want to get out of bed. He just wanted to watch the innocent looking face of his wife as she continued to sleep. He didn't want this moment to end and if she let him, he would definitely like to continue it.

River awoke a half hour later having been woken up by the fact that he had been playing with her locks. "Hello Sweetie," she said huskily.

"Hello." They left it in the air for a moment just enjoying the other's company. " I was thinking," he continued. "That we don't have to end this now. We could go wherever and whenever you like."

"River thought about it for a second before responding, "Then what are we waiting for." She jumped out of the bed wrapping the comforter around her before making her way back to the console room. The Doctor, not as comfortable as she walking around practically naked, decided to take a quick shower and change before going out to the console room.


	3. Time Stands Still

River stood in the control room, playing with the dials and buttons on the console, while waiting for The Doctor to get out of the shower. "I don't know why he feels the need to change. It's not like either of us hasn't seen him naked," she spoke aloud to the TARDIS.

The TARDIS hummed softly in reply.

"What do you mean, 'we're not the only ones who have seen this regeneration naked?' I'll excuse the fourth person as that hasn't happened yet but who is this third person? I'm quite curious about who The Doctor would feel comfortable being naked around. He's quite conservative."

At the moment, Amy burst through the TARDIS' doors, causing River to look over to see what was happening. Mrs. Song was surprised by her mother's entranced but it's timing caused a light bulb to click in her head.

Before she could filter the thoughts running through her head, she let fly the first thing that came to mind. "Why have you seen The Doctor naked?"

Amy was confused as to why her daughter would ask her such a random question but decided to answer. "He was looking for a new style as he had only just regenerated and I just so happened to be there while he was changing."

River nodded in understanding before hanging the subject as there was no need to dwell on this one. "I would just like to apologize for missing breakfast yesterday. I hadn't meant to."

Amy now gave the other woman a confused look. What was she talking about? The distance between the house and the TARDIS hadn't been that far. It would take two minutes at most for someone to reach the space-time machine from Amy and Rory's house.

It was then that Pond took s better look at her Melody. She realized then that River was dressed in nothing but a comforter. Or so she assumed. River, seeing her mother trying to burn a hole through the thick blanket, confirmed the older woman's suspicions. This is however only confused Amy more. How do you do _the deed_ in no more than two minutes and think it's been hours? Amy just could not understand.

"Right then, shall we be off?" The Doctor asked as he entered the TARDIS control room.

"Not quite," his wife replied. The excitement in The Doctor's eyes died when he was refused his trip. "Amy's on board and apparently, I haven't been away from the house for more than a couple minutes. But it's been hours."

This, obviously, peaked The Doctor's interest. "Away for minutes but it's been hours," he mused silently. He went up to the console and started toggling buttons, switching switches and whatever else it was that The Doctor did.

Amy and River waited for his answer quietly but not so patiently. The two women had to walk around the room in order to keep themselves slightly distracted.

Song suspected that her husband was wasting time only to annoy the two of them. If it wasn't for the fact that she was still in a slight moment of bliss, River would have shoved The Doctor away and done the search herself.

"I see. The TARDIS changed her internal speed of time. We're moving faster than the world outside." A hum could be heard. "You wanted me to come into contact with River. You planned all this – not that I'm complaining. I'm just surprised."

"I still don't understand why she would speed up time," Amy said, still confused. River and The Doctor shared glances with one another.

River gave The Doctor a look saying that she should be the one to tell her mother as she was the more delicate one of the two. He shrugged, letting he have the go ahead.

"We can't very well spend some quality time if you barged in, now could we?" Amy wasn't usually this slow but she'd been away from The Doctor for quite a while and it was early morning. Once she processed what she was told, she nodded in understanding.

The older woman told her daughter to get dressed and asked The Doctor was ready to go. The obvious questions were asked. When. Where. River, being on the same wavelength as her mother, answered them both in her mother's stead. Here. Now. The two women each grabbed one of The Doctor's arms and led him out of the blue box.

"What are the two of you planning? I don't like this. What is happening?"

"We're taking you home for a family breakfast. It has been long overdue." A horrified look grew on The Doctor's face and he quickly tried to release the grip of the two women from his arms but they held on tight.

The Doctor gave up when he knew that it would be of no use trying to fight against the two women and went along with them quickly.

The group walked peacefully down the street, enjoying the scenery, when one of Amelia's neighbors stopped them from continuing their journey home.. "Oh Amelia, how nice to see you. We haven't talked in a while. This must be Rory." Then he turned his attention to River, "And who is this beautiful lady?"

The three gave each other amused looks before Amy returned her gaze to her neighbor to answer him. "Actually, this is my daughter Melody and her husband, The Doctor. They're visiting Rory and I for a bit."

It wasn't much of a surprise to the triad to see a look of shock on the man's face as he tried to process what he had been told and what he was currently seeing. That is when River jumped into the conversation. "You see sir, time travel is such a funny thing. Amy, here, looks to be in her thirties, which she is, while I look like I am in my fifties. The secret is, I am. I'm just from the very distant future and just so happened to see mother dear all over the place. And The Doctor? Well, he's over 1000 years old but he likes to change his face up now and then."

The neighbor seemed like he was ready to have a heart attack so the women carries the group along before they could be held accountable in case he did have a freak out.

"Time to enjoy this wonderful breakfast the two of us prepared, "River declared as they sat at the breakfast table, ready to dig into the food that had been set.


End file.
